Beyond the Stars: INEO (5 page)

I grimaced. “Thanks for the visual. That information is just what I need to know when I first meet her.” I covered his mouth to cut him off before he could say another word.

“Sorry, sometimes I forget you’re a woman when I talk to you.”

Trying to ignore him, I acted preoccupied and finished pulling on my boots.

“Sami, I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t get mad. I know you’re a girl,” Noah apologized. “But you know you are the only person I can confide in. I have to tell someone how I really feel.”

“Noah, relax. I’m not insulted. If you started to censor yourself, then I’d be offended. Hey, check me out. It looks like I’m going on a safari,” I cheered, and posed with my hands on my hips. “I feel so adventurous. Don’t I look cool?” I could have been in an Indiana Jones movie dressed like this.

“You look adorable—and pretty. Hey, stay close to the group,” Noah warned when I turned to leave.

“See you soon,” I replied, heading to the open landing ramp.

Azil waited for me by the door with a happy expression on her face. “I’m glad you like the clothes; they will help to keep us dry,” she explained after overhearing my excitement.

I understood what she meant when a blast of humid air hit my face as soon as we stepped outside. I could feel my wavy hair spring into spirals with the climate’s falling barometer. We had landed in a grassy clearing in the middle of a jungle. A thick wall of tall trees covered by an overgrowth of vines surrounded the open field on all sides. The field had waist high grass. It smothered our bodies and felt like it could swallow us whole. I held up my arms to keep the tall blades from thwacking my hands when I moved. They were sharp enough to sting.

“Wait, is that where we are going? Where’s the post?” I moaned when the group started heading towards the trees. The dense foliage was interlaced with threads of fog. It made the forest look dark and spooky, and even haunted. Everyone ignored me and kept walking. I heard what sounded like hundreds of birds chirping in shrill calls, but saw none flying in the air. The branches of the surrounding trees were swaying and crackling in the wind like they were alive.
Anything
could be hiding in those trees.
What was lurking inside its shelter?
It better not be giant pterodactyls, or worse, snakes or spiders. “Haven’t they thought of landing pads on this side of the galaxy?”

Gaelan gave me a glint of a smile before continuing onward. “Sure, but we like to survey the area and see who’s in charge before we make ourselves known. Places like this have a history of its management being overthrown.”

As soon as we reached the tree covered path, we were engulfed with a horrific odor. The air seemed to thicken and grow more humid; my lungs felt heavy.

I rubbed my chest to try to relieve the uncomfortable tightening sensation. “Are you
sure
this air is safe?” I asked with a gasp. I was forced to take shallow breaths not only because it smelled terrible, it was almost painful to take in a full deep breath. It felt as if I was breathing in water. I saw Azil breathing through the fabric of her coat collar and copied her.

“Ugh, I forgot about the stench after it rains,” Azil said, sounding disgusted. “Next time, I’ll equip us with face masks to filter out the smell.”

Urit stepped closer and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Sam. The air is fine. There’s nothing lethal in it,” he reassured.

The trail between the trees was slim, and the land became marshy. We had to walk over wet, slippery, yellow plants covering pockets of mud. My boots gripped to the ground with each step, followed by a sucking gush of water every time I lifted my foot forward. To make matters worse, the spongy plants not only twisted their exposed roots around our feet, they released a pungent smell of decaying vegetation that worsened with each step—
yuck.
I covered my mouth and nose with my hand and tried not to complain. I couldn’t help gasping when I saw a couple of tiny blue lizards crawling through the grass at my feet. After closer inspection, I realized the grass was littered with them.

Gaelan looked down. “Just step over them,” he instructed mindlessly.

I took a big step over the squirming reptiles, careful to steer clear of smashing them.
Gross.

Tyden walked past me. “Let’s get a move on it. It will be dark soon, and I can only hold my breath for so long.”

I glanced up at the gray cloudy sky peeking through the treetops. It appeared to be broad daylight. Still, I didn’t question him on the planet’s cycle of day and night. He knew the place better than I did.

“Let’s hope we find Nia here,” Urit said, walking with determination beside me.

His words nearly broke my heart. I had to fight back a tear because I knew finding her here was such a stretch. The Dreons would never let her go so easily.

“We’re almost there,” Zaric said, pointing to the large stone structure showing through the breaks in the trees.

Gaelan stopped for a moment and looked around. “Wait. Did anyone hear that?” he whispered, remaining still.

Everyone froze, trusting Gaelan’s keen sense of hearing. We studied the dense forest. I saw nothing but a few long vines swaying from the light breeze. Then I heard a noise, too. Something was rustling through the brush in the fog. It sounded like it was coming our way.

“Oh no, Sami. Look out! At your feet,” Azil said with alarm.

I jumped back.
“Ahh,
get it off me, help!” I yelled so loudly it echoed off the trees.
Great, I thought, here ends my off-ship excursion. I’m about to be eaten by a giant blue mama lizard.

Gaelan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me towards him. I looked down to discover a ducklike creature sitting on my boot.

“Scram, you.” I shook my right foot. It didn’t budge.

Gaelan used his foot to push it off. The creature looked up at us curiously before it hopped away with remarkable speed.

I exhaled in relief. “Don’t scare me like that, people. I thought I was going to die!” I said angrily and gave them all a mean glare.

Gaelan crinkled his nose in disgust. “It’s too late. It already got you.”

“What do you mean?”

Gaelan grinned. “Your boot.”

I checked for damages. Feeling no pain, I discovered it had pooped on my foot.

He and the others laughed.

“Great,” I said, trying to scrape the top of my boot against the grass to clean it.

Azil came up next to me and whispered next to my ear, “Sami, you have to try and lighten up. Please, we need you to keep it together. Trust us. We’re not going to make you anybody’s lunch.”

“Thanks. I know,” I replied, feeling humiliated for my outburst.

Maybe they already regretted bringing me along. I knew that my emotional control was not as developed as theirs. However, I couldn’t control every reaction I had, no matter how hard I tried. Besides, the hot, stinky air was making me cranky, and I hated having to walk on the marshy ground. I was worried I would be sucked down at any minute. We continued to trek silently until reaching the building, occasionally being pelted with sprays of sideways rain being blown off the wet trees every time the wind picked up.

It took less than fifteen minutes to reach the post. I tried not to overreact when I first saw the three story structure, though it was remarkable. It looked like a huge square fort that went on for blocks. The walls were made out of giant blocks of gray stone with small silver flecks that glimmered like twinkling reflectors in the daylight. Who or what cut the enormous pieces?

Zaric removed a scanning device from his pocket and aimed it at the building’s immensely thick stone walls. We gathered around him and peered over his shoulder to look at the gadget’s screen. It displayed a gray picture highlighting the outline of blackened moving bodies inside the structure and had a running list of numbers and letters zooming down the left side of the screen.

“It appears to be a good day,” Zaric said with delight. “See, Sami,” he brought it closer to my face. “It’s not enough to scan the perimeter for passing ships. There are over a dozen different species inside.” He tapped the screen to enlarge another region of the building. “We can check out the entire building. Normally, the picture is better.” He moaned to himself as he fiddled with the screen’s brightness. “But the post has a strong magnetic field that disrupts the image. However, we are still able to collect data on each of the starships inside and identify them. So far, the ship configurations are all different. It means the place is still accepting all kinds. No wars. Soon, we will know everybody inside.”

After a few minutes of watching Zaric flick from screen to screen, Gaelan leaned over my shoulder, let out a sigh, and wiped the sweat off his brow. He appeared to be growing restless in viewing the endless data blinking before our eyes. “Zaric, can we go in yet? That thing is
so
slow. This pavement is scorching, the air reeks, and I’m getting too hot and pissed off to wait for the full scan.”

Tyden covered his mouth and coughed. “I can’t argue with that.”

Zaric smiled and licked his lips. “I was waiting to see how long it would take for someone to complain. You’re right, Gaelan. At this rate, it will take another five hours to obtain the complete scan,” he said in a taunting tone.

“Damn it, Zaric,” Gaelan scolded. “Can’t you ever be serious?”

“You’re wasting time,” Urit said with shared frustration.

Quickly, we all headed towards the building.

Azil came closer to me. “Sami, remember what we told you … this place can be a little unnerving on your first visit. Keep your head high, shoulders back, direct eye contact with anyone that gets in your way, and show no fear. You have to act like you own the place. It’s the only way not to get pushed around in there,” she coached.

“And don’t touch anything,” Gaelan added.

I nodded. “Got it.”
Jeez,
I felt like their child. Now I couldn’t trust myself.

Tyden squinted as he looked up at the building. “Where’s that strange door?” he said with aggravation.

The building’s smooth stone walls had no visible breaks.

Urit sighed and stepped in front of him. “Oh, please, it’s right here, as plain as day,” he said, shocking me with his metaphor. I must have been corrupting his straight talking ways.

Tyden groaned. I knew he hated to have his authority undermined. After taking a closer look, I noticed what Urit had seen. There were small engraved markings on the stone.

“The Katarians wish to enter,” Urit said, taking a closer step to the solid stone wall.

The wall disappeared before our eyes and was replaced by a huge entrance. The wall was nothing but a hologram. We stepped inside and were greeted by a towering figure wearing a long and raggedy black cloak that dragged on the floor. It looked like the Grim Reaper. Its head was covered in a matching black wrap, showing only a hint of gray skin and glowing red eyes.

Oh my goodness, talk about freaky.
He scared me to death, no pun intended. I got shaky knowing I would have to walk past
it
to get through the door. I looked around to see if there were more of them inside. There weren’t; only different beings with no resemblance of anything human moving all about.
I shouldn’t be here.
I was suddenly aware of how far away from home I was. I took a deep breath of the room’s cleaner air to summon my strength.
Just breathe. Keep it together,
I thought as I clung to Azil’s encouraging words of how they wouldn’t let anything eat me.

“Step forward—stop—turn—proceed,” the figure said in an electronic voice to each of us. It scanned Tyden from head to toe with a laser beam lasso that shot out from its eyes. I stood in line with the others and nervously awaited my turn. Urit went next, followed by Azil, and then Zaric. Just when I thought it would be my turn, the figure’s tool made a high pitched whirring sound. “Halt for immediate destruction of weapon,” the figure demanded after its beam paused and locked itself at the height of Zaric’s coat pockets.

Zaric rolled his eyes. “Are you serious?”

In an instant, the beam made a buzzing sound that was followed by a puff of smoke escaping from the seams of Zaric’s left pocket. It then continued to scan down Zaric’s legs before declaring, “Proceed.”

“Did you have to vaporize it?” Zaric said in protest, marching away.

It didn’t answer.

“What did you bring?” Azil asked him when he got next to her.

“My retractable cutter. I thought we might need it in the jungle. Damn, I really liked that thing,” he moaned.

“Do you have to lose everything? You’re lucky it didn’t vaporize
you”
she teased.

“Step forward,” it said to me.

I hesitantly stepped in front of the thing and watched its lasso travel up my body, encircling me with a wide red beam of light. Luckily, it was painless. I waited for it to tell me to go. Instead, it retracted its lasso, lowered its burka covered face, and brought its red eyes inches from mine. I was shocked to discover how real the irises looked. Up until now, I figured they were mechanical.
Dear Lord. What was this thing?
It looked like a demon. My palms started to sweat. I stood perfectly still and took shallow breaths. I was afraid to make any movement that might somehow irk it and cause it to vaporize me as it did Zaric’s knife. I waited while it came closer to study my face. It looked so deeply into my eyes it was as though it was searching for my soul. Then, without warning, it jetted its head and upper body around my left side and glided up to my ear, before swinging around to my right. It was frightening to see how fast it moved. It appeared to be double jointed at the waist and neck. It took all my strength not to pull away. I wanted to run. After a short pause, it straightened its back and returned to its previous stance.